


Reasons for the Vote

by saltwaterselkie



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Explicit Language, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mockingjay, Voting, after the war, you know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 08:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19205542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltwaterselkie/pseuds/saltwaterselkie
Summary: The seven victors left alive after the war vote for the Hunger Games with Capitol children.





	Reasons for the Vote

It’s the seven of them left. Only the seven of them left.

Johanna votes yes. The word cuts its way out of her, almost unbidden. Her mind is not on the Capitol children who will die in the arena – no, that’s not right. She _is_ thinking of one of them. Snow’s granddaughter. And there is a vicious righteousness in her declaration, because she is also thinking of the calmness in his voice as he stood in front of Johanna and watched them dunk her, electrocute her, cut her, and said oh-so-softly, “ _just tell us what we need to know about the rebellion, Miss Mason.”_ She is thinking of how she’d spat out a “ _fuck you”_ in the exact same tone as the time he’d told her who she would sleep with first after winning her Games, and she is thinking of the danger in his eyes and the dead family that came after.

Johanna’s mind is on her Hunger Games, and her family, and her torture, and Finnick, who was all she had left. And she votes yes.

Peeta Mellark votes no. This is not a surprise. Everyone in the room knows that Peeta is too soft, even after the Capitol tried to twist him into something terrible. His greatest rebellion is in his refusal to be like the other victors, like Johanna and Enobaria and even Katniss. He is the boy with the bread, and he argues that this is _not_ what they fought for, and he votes no.

Enobaria votes yes, because she still remembers blood on her teeth and the taste of it in her mouth and the subtle way she orchestrated her meals so she never had to eat meat again. They all see her as the odd one out, the one the Capitol didn’t torture like Mason or Mellark, but they didn’t see her sitting sullenly quiet when her stylist suggested her tooth modifications. They didn’t see her trying to revel in the Games as a mentor because what else could she do but despair? They didn’t see that she’s done everything, _everything_ , to survive, ever since her teeth closed around that fellow tribute’s throat.

She’s done surviving. She _has_ survived. Now she’s one of the ones in charge. Enobaria votes yes.

Annie votes no. Of course Annie votes no; she is the softest one among them, besides Peeta. She knows what it’s like to keep swimming, keep swimming, keep swimming, whether it’s through water or despair. She never killed when she was the arena, got away free in that regard, so why would she start now? Perhaps she is thinking of Finnick’s child, the baby she will bear, and thinks that voting for the death of children in another Hunger Games would make her no better than the mutts who killed him. She votes no because what else could she possibly say? What else would Finnick have said?

Beetee votes no for reasons of practicality. He still tries to view his Games from a distance, logically, but the fear bubbles up and he thinks of Wiress and his district partner and all the others he lost. He thinks of how the Games changed Annie, and how they hardened Johanna – because Johanna is only _twenty-one_ , and she’s already been through hell and back – and he thinks that he would never want someone like Johanna as the Capitol victor of this proposed plan. Someone determined to bring down the new government at all costs. That is what he puts forward when he votes: think of the discord we would be sowing, he wants to yell. Think of the danger of falling into the same patterns as our tormentors.

So Beetee votes no.

Katniss votes yes. She is thinking of Prim’s duck tail and the bombs going off, and she knows who she blames for that, but she is also thinking of how it felt when her arrow first entered Marvel’s chest. She is thinking of the burden of the Games that she will _never_ set down, and she wants the Capitol, in their luxury and privilege, to know what it’s like for a sister, a daughter, to never come home.

And Haymitch votes with her, because he understands, and because he has nothing left to lose.

When Coin dies, so does her plan. The 76th annual Hunger Games never comes to be. But they voted, the seven, and they know.

Perhaps they understand each other a little better after the vote, too.


End file.
